Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	affliction_n	lord_n	sin_n	1,503	5	4.9511	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89716	Gods great care of his good people in bad times discovered in several sermons / preached by Mr. James Nalton (late minister of St. Leonards Foster-Lane) immediately upon his return from Holland, about twelve years since ; published by J.F., teacher of short- writing, who took them in characters from the said Mr. J. Nalton.	Nalton, James, 1600-1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing N122A; ESTC R42508	60,551	169

them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose And Hebr. 12.10 He chastiseth us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness And hear but David out of his own experience Psal 119.71 75 v. It is good for me that I have been afflicted that I might learn thy statutes and I know O Lord that in very faithfullness thou hast afflicted me But for the better confirmation and explication of this truth because it is a truth that flesh and blood will hardly believe that God in his severest providences should intend our good There are these three queries that would be satissied Frst What good it is that God doth intend in his severest providences towards his Children And secondly Who they are that shall experimently find this Doctrine verified of them And thirdly How or with what limitation this Doctrine must be understood Frist What good it is that God doth intend his people Briefly there is a fourfold good that God intends unto his people in his corrections and chastisements and in the wayes of his severity towards them 1. In reference to their sins 2d In reference to their graces 3d In reference to their present comforts 4th In reference to their future hopes First In reference to their sins God intends a fourfold good 1. To prevent sin 2d To discover sin 3d To imbitter sin And 4th To destory sin First God in reference to the sins of his people intends this good to them namely to prevent sin If Saint Paul such a heavenly man or an earthly Angel as one cals him had need of a thorne in his flesh to prevent that spirituall pride and self exaltation that otherwise he might have fallen into O How much more have we need of some affiction to prevent those sins that otherwise we might run into That as Physitians tell us they have two sorts of medecines They have Preventing Physick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as healing Physick so God makes afflictions to be preventing Physick as well as healing Physick unto his own Children And as Themistocles said in the like case Periissem nist Periissem If I had not been undone I had been undone So may many a child of God say if God had not hedged up my way with Thornes I had run post to the pit of hell and had rushed upon the rock of my own ruin long before this time That is one good in reference to sin to prevent it Secondly Another good God intends his people by afflictions in reference to their sin is to discover it in standing waters you cannot see the mud that lies at the bottom of the Pool but when once the water is removed then the mud is discovered So here while we are at peace and case in times of prosperity and whiles we are not emptied from vessel to vessel we are setled upon our lees as 't is said of Moab Jer. 48.11 and the dregs and mud of our corruptions are not discovered but now when we are emptied from vessel to vessel that is emptied of our outward enjoyments and of our outward comforts and God begins to take the rod into his hand then he makes us reflect upon our selves and to say as Job did in the day of his distress Job 13.23 24. Make me to know my transgression and my sin Remarkeable is that speach of the Shunamitish woman unto Elijah 1 King 17.18 Art thou come to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son Pray marke the death of her son made her reflect upon her sin she would not have called her sin to remembrance but that her son was now ready to be taken away affliction it is a sharp tyrant I but it is a just judge it represents our condition truly to us and lets us see the inside of our selves it doth discover self to self a man never comes to know himself and to know the plague of his own heart so well as when the rod of God is upon his back that is a second good afflictions work in reference to sin to discover it And thirdly God intends this good to his people in reference to sin to imbitter it that in the bitterness of sorrow we may tast the bitterness of sin that is the cause of sorrow that we may see and say as in Jerem. 2.19 'T is an evill and bitter thing that we have forsaken the Lord our God and that his fear hath not been in us And brethren sin it is a very bitter thing nay sin is bitterness it self Hos 12.14 Ephraim hath provoked him to anger most bitterly in the Hebrew it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephraim hath provoked him with bitternesses Sin it is that which caused the Lord Jesus Christ to drink that bitter cup of trembling It would have made all the men on earth nay all the Angels in heaven to have sunk under the burden of that wrath that he drunk of so that sin is I say a bitter thing and therefore God afflicts us to imbitter sin to us and that we should be in bitterness for sin as a man is in bitterness for the loss of an onely childe Zech. 12.10 And then fourthly In refrence to sin God afflicts us to destroy sin to make a separation between sin and the soul A sucking child that loves the mothers breast yet you know when Worm-wood is laid upon the breast then the child loaths it and is willing to leave it and it becomes but a ●a dead breast to him though before he delighted in it So likewise when God is pleased to imbitter sin he doth as it were kill the sin to us and makes us willing to leave it though before we did dearly love it and indeed it is but fit and equall that that sin which hath been contracted with joy should be dissolved with sorrow sin is so rooted and setled in the heart that a separation cannot be made without a great deal of sorrow but when once we feel the smart of sin then we can say with holy Job Job 34.32 That which I know not teach thou me and if I have done iniquity I will doe no more And saies he Once have I spoken but I will not answer Job 40.5 yea twice but I will proceed no farther This then is the first Good God intends his Children in the severest of his providences in reference to sin to prevent it discover it imbitter it and destroy it But then secondly God intends another good unto his people in the severest of his providences in reference to their graces both to try their graces and likewise to exercise their graces First To try their graces God he sometimes proves and tries his Chidren whether they be legitimate Children or whether they be bastards yea or no Psal 66.10 For thou O God hast proved us thou hast tryed us as silver is tryed And Hebr. 12.8 If yea be without chastisement whereof all are partakers

peoples good we may learn then these four lessons by way of Instruction First Learn to admire the infinite wisdome of God that same various 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 curious wisdome of God the Apostles speak of Ephe. 3.10 that can bring light out of darkness peace out of trouble good out of evil grace out of sin hope out of fear and heaven out of hell O! the unspeakable wisdome of God here is Samsons riddle now expounded out of the eater God can bring forth meat and out of the strong God can bring forth sweetness out of afflictions and the most bitter passages of providence God can certainly bring some good to his poor Children there is nothing so high but his providence is above it there is nothing so low but his providence is beneath it there is nothing of such an extent but his providence is able to bound it and there is nothing so confused but his providence can order it for his own glory and his peoples good O! admire fear love and trust this great God that can work all things for the good of his Children And secondly By way of instruction we may hence see the reason why God doth not prevent the afflictions of his people and why he doth not remove them so suddenly as we would have him it is not for want of love and affection to his people but because he knows how to bring good to them out of their afflictions The patient when he hath a smarting Plaister applyed to him cries to the Chyrurgion to take it off but he doth not take it off as soon as the patient would have him because he knows it works for his good Would God think you have suffered Joseph to have been sould into Egypt to have been made a bondslave and to have been imprisoned there but that he knew how by this abasement to work his advancement And do you think God would have suffered David after he had annointed him King to be yet pursued as a partridge upon the mountains and to be driven from one place to another and brought to such great streights but that he knew how to work good to him out of all these troubles But thirdly By way of instruction this may let us see what a vast difference there is between the godly and the wicked between the condition of the one and of the other to the godly all things yea the worst things even Gods severest providences work together for good but to the wicked all things even the best things work together for their hurt Spirituall good things and temporall good things work for their hurt First All Spirituall good things work for their hurt as for example the mercy of God which is one of the choicest Jewels he hath in his Cabanet this works for the hurt of ungodly men because it is an occasion of loosness and libertinisme to them the grace of God another choice Jewel works for their hurt for it is an occasion of wantoness they turne the grace of God into liciviousness the patience of God that is an occasion of their presumption the ordinances they are but poyson to them their baptisme will be but a witness of their perjury the Lords Supper will be but as a feal to their damnation the word of God which to others is a savour of life unto life Ro. 9.33 unto them it is a favour of death unto death nay Jesus Christ himself to a wicked man is but a stumbling stone and a rock of offence And as all spirituall good things so all temporall good things likewise work for hurt to wicked men as for example all providences though they seem never so smiling and successull do yet tend to the hurt of ungodly men The prosperitie of fools shall destroy them Pro. 1.32 so likwise their riches shall be their ruin their flourishing shall be their perishing their power their authority their greatness their attendance their freinds their full tables all these shall be but as a curse unto their souls Mal. 2.2 God curses his own blessings unto wicked men As God can turn curses into blessings where his Children please him so he can turn blessings into curses to wicked and ungodly men Had it not been better think you for Ahithophel to have been a very fool rather than such a great Politician as he was for his wisdome was his ruine Had it not been better for Absolom to have been a deformed creature than so beautifull as he was for his beauty was his ruine Had it not been far better for him to have been a kitchin boy than a King for his power and authoritie was his ruine Had it not been better for Haman to have been the foot-stool rather than such a great favorite in Ahasuerus his Court for his favour was his ruine God set him in a slipperie place to cast him down to destruction In a word all temptations shall be for their hurt 2 Chron. 28.22 all afflictious shall be for their hurt King Ahas in the time of his distresse did trespass yet more against the Lord. And all examples whether of the godly or wicked shall be for their hurt the examples of the godly shall make them but fret and rage at them so much the more the examples of other wicked men like themselves shall but infect and corrupt them so much the more death it self shall be for their hurt death shall be as a trap-door to let them down to the bottomless pit of hell whence they shall never never return Oh! who would be in a state of unregeneracy and unbelief in an unreformed and impenitent flate and sleep in it one houre Who would be in the state of the wicked when all things work for their hurt That is the third instruction The fourth instruction by way of information is this If God can make the severest of his providences to work for our good then we have no cause to be much troubled at crosses and afflictions at tryalls and temptations we have no cause to sink under the burden of them but rather to bear them patiently without fainting or fretting for though at present we do not know how they should be forour good yet God knows how to order them for ourspirituall advantage here and for our eternall advantage here after You will give a Watch-maker leave to take your watch in piecer because he knows how to put ●● together again So you may give God leave to break you in your comsorts and in your own ends and designs because God knows how to set you together again Hosea 6.1 He hath broken us and he will heal us he hath smitten and he will bind us up When you come at the beginning of the year and see a house a building you see nothing but deformity here a piece of timber and there stones and in another place rubbish I but come at the end of the year and you shall see a beautifull fabr ick We have